I'm off of work for a few days in a row, but my mind can't seem to leave work in my sleep! I just thought I would share two of the weird dreams I had this week.
I was caring for a patient who has been chronically in and out of my unit over the last several months and quite debilitated. I wanted to ambulate him around the unit. My unit secretary (who, in real life, I feel often oversteps her bounds as a unit secretary and is a know-it-all with no real knowledge or experience to back it up) told me I should have 2 people and have the patient use a walker. Telling her I knew better than her, I walked him with no assistive device and just myself. He fell and broke his front teeth. I guess the lesson here is better safe than sorry, and don't let pride get in the way of safety.
In my second dream, I was caring for another one of our chronic patients when I was watching the cardiac monitor and he was having all kinds of ectopy. I thought that was odd as he had previously been quite stable. I watch some more as he goes into SVT and then pulseless v-tach. I start CPR and call a code and as I'm doing compressions ask the wife if she has any idea what could be going on, if he complained of anything recently. She tells me that the head doctor came in and asked if he was sick of living like this and the patient had said yes, so he said he would be back in with something to put him out of his misery. The wife proceeds to tell me that he's now a DNR. I tell her that the paperwork hasn't been fully signed yet and continue CPR. He dies. Afterward, I check the pyxis and find that every opiate and benzo was totally emptied out of it under the head doctor's name. I panic and try to sign out of the pyxis before anyone links me to it or gets me in the middle of the affair.
I woke up from this dream literally in a cold sweat. I don't see what the point of sharing it is other than that it was eerie and I wanted to share it with people that might understand.